/*
 * Copyright (C) 2008 Google Inc.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package cn.emay.sdk.util.json.gson;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;

/**
 * Context for serialization that is passed to a custom serializer during
 * invocation of its
 * {@link JsonSerializer#serialize(Object, Type, JsonSerializationContext)}
 * method.
 *
 * @author Inderjeet Singh
 * @author Joel Leitch
 */
public interface JsonSerializationContext {

	/**
	 * Invokes default serialization on the specified object.
	 *
	 * @param src
	 *            the object that needs to be serialized.
	 * @return a tree of {@link JsonElement}s corresponding to the serialized form
	 *         of {@code src}.
	 */
	public JsonElement serialize(Object src);

	/**
	 * Invokes default serialization on the specified object passing the specific
	 * type information. It should never be invoked on the element received as a
	 * parameter of the
	 * {@link JsonSerializer#serialize(Object, Type, JsonSerializationContext)}
	 * method. Doing so will result in an infinite loop since Gson will in-turn call
	 * the custom serializer again.
	 *
	 * @param src
	 *            the object that needs to be serialized.
	 * @param typeOfSrc
	 *            the actual genericized type of src object.
	 * @return a tree of {@link JsonElement}s corresponding to the serialized form
	 *         of {@code src}.
	 */
	public JsonElement serialize(Object src, Type typeOfSrc);
}
